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AGDC 08: The Secret to Storytelling in MMOs
At the Austin Game Developers Conference, we sat down to a one-man panel held by James Portnow, of Divide by Zero Games. His topic was "The Secret to Storytelling in a Massively Multiplayer Environment", and it was well worth our time.James' main point was to collect the various servers, or shards, into one continuous world, and how that would affect the idea of composing an overarching storyline. We've compiled a breakdown of James' panel here, condensing his hour-long talk into what we think are his most salient points. Remember, most of these statements are not actual quotes unless specifically pulled out as such. Read on to learn more about "The Secret to Storytelling in a Massively Multiplayer Environment".
AGDC 08: The Importance of Learning Style and Gender in MMOs
We spent a little time at the Austin Game Developers Conference this year and walked away with our heads full of game-related knowledge. Not least of this came from a panel held by Sheri Graner Ray, the computer game industry's leading expert on the subject of gender and computer games.She began by dividing learning styles into types, and explaining how closely gender relates to the different styles. She then went on to discuss how important it is for game tutorials to include the different styles of learning at the risk of losing potential players. We've compiled a breakdown of Sheri's panel here, condensing her hour-long talk into what we think are her most salient points. Remember, most of these statements are not actual quotes unless specifically pulled out as such. Read on to learn more about "The Importance of Learning Style and Gender in MMOs".
AGDC: Blazing The Trail For Hot Game Dialogue
The Austin GDC is focusing on audio and writing in games this year. While technology has made audio more and more important in making an immersive game experience, good writing has always been key to making a great game. Just travel back in time and ask the guys at Infocom, who had entire games consisting of nothing but writing.The "Blazing the Trail" panel was meant to provide game writers with the tools that they would need to construct good game dialogue, although it quickly turned into a one-woman show. DB Cooper (not the famous hijacker) is a voice-over artist, actor and producer, and she's also quite a personality. You know the kind of person who could fill an airplane hangar with their voice? That's her. She was joined onstage by Maryanne Krawczyk who has written for television and video games, including God of War, God of War 2, and Area 51. She's also working on the upcoming God of War 3, but she vanished into the ether after the panel so we couldn't quiz her about it.After the break you'll find out how the panel went, and get plenty of tips and tricks for aspiring game writers. Read on, Macduff!
Icarus Studios demos iPhone MMO software this week
Icarus Studios -- developer of Fallen Earth and the associated Icarus Platform virtual world development tools --announced via press release that this week it is demonstrating its 3D MMO platform running on Apple's iPhone at the Austin Game Developers Conference.The demo is modest -- a "360-degree panoramic tour of a sample virtual world location." Users control the camera with the phone's accelerometer. Apple recently threw down the gauntlet, saying that the iPhone and the iPod Touch platforms are "the best portable device for playing games." No reason that future can't include MMOs, right?The iPhone client is scheduled to launch in Q1 of 2009. Does this mean that within months everyone on the New York subway, the Chicago El, and the London Underground will be immersed in a never-ending, time-sinking quest for teh phat lewtz?
ZeniMax Online is hiring at Austin Game Developers Conference
If you're a talented game professional and you're planning to attend the Austin Game Developers Conference this coming week, you may want to head on over to booth 100 and speak with ZeniMax Online Studios (which has a brand-new official site). As they've just announced, ZeniMax will be looking for potential employees with experience in Art, Programming, Design, Server Technology, Customer Support, QA and Marketing. Despite the fact that ZeniMax is located in Hunt Valley, Maryland, this may be a great opportunity for those developers in the Austin area who have suffered through the area's recent set-backs.ZeniMax Online is the sister company of Bethesda Softworks, most famously known for their development and publishing of the Elder Scrolls Series and the upcoming Fallout 3. However, don't mistake their association with Bethesda to any connection with the Fallout MMO, which is currently in development by Interplay.
Sci-fi author Bruce Sterling to keynote, predict future at Austin GDC
Famous for groundbreaking science fiction novels such as Schizmatrix and Heavy Weather, author Bruce Sterling is also regarded as one of the world's leading futurists. That is, he's really good at predicting where everything from media to industry to consumer technology will be at in the near future. Now he's going to do the same with video games ... and what they will be like in the year 2043.Sterling will deliver his keynote address, "Computer Entertainment 35 Years from Today," at the upcoming Austin Game Developers Conference being held September 15-17. It will certainly be intriguing to hear what one of the founders of the cyberpunk movement has to say about the future of our shared hobby, especially given the recent introduction of technology such as Wii MotionPlus. We also have to wonder if he's seen Sony's famous "PS9" commercial.
Austin Game Developers Conference previews the evolving face of MMOs
Worlds in Motion has continued to announce some of the highlights of the upcoming Austin Game Developer's Conference. We've previously talked about featured speakers like Nexon's Min Kim, and interesting events showcasing the collaboration between casual gaming and MMOs. These newest events continue to explore some topics we've returned to several times before here at Massively. The business side of massive gaming, for example, will be explored in a panel entitled Evolving Business for MMOs. Speakers will include Turbine Business Development VP Robert Ferrari, CCP CEO Himlar Veigar Pertursson, Funcom Business Development VP Nicolay Nickelsen, Nexon America director Min Kim, and ImaginVenture SA COO Jessica Mulligan.Other talks will include tips for the changing face of MMO business models, focusing on free-to-play and RMT models. Another will discuss some of the challenges of running a Beta test, with hands-on knowledge from Keneva's Jonathan Hanna. Check out the full listing of MMO-related talks and panels over at the official AGDC website today.
AGDC announces first keynote address
The Worlds in Motion site notes that the first keynote address has been announced for this year's Austin Game Developer's Conference. Last last month the first speakers, such as Damion Schubert and Min Kim, were announced for the MMO-focused event. This week the event's first keynote has been announced, and it's very different from your average early-morning droner. Fans of The Office rejoice! The folks behind the Dunder Mifflin social networking game will be offering up ways of "driving user behavior and increasing engagement".Other events announced include a technical discussion on Tabula Rasa's shading technology; that's an in-depth session aimed at MMO developers looking for cost/benefit tradeoffs. Probably the most exciting announced talk this week is Nick Fortugno's talk entitled What Your Mother and Your Ten-Year Old Can Teach You About MMOs. He gave a similar lecture at this year's IMGDC event, previously discussed here on the site. Interested parties will get early bird status through August 27th.
Austin Game Developer's Conference announces speakers
This year's Austin Game Developer's Conference, slated for early September, sounds like it will be a good one. Though the ION 2008 event was a fantastic MMO-focused design and development thinktank, AGDC traditionally fills that roll. CMP (the event's organizer) has announced some of the speakers that will be participating in the event. The list includes industry heavyweights like Nexon America's Min Kim, BioWare's Damion Schubert, and Cryptic's Gordon Wei.We're particularly interested in Mr. Schubert's talk. Last year his Zen of Online Game Design discussion was one of the highlights of the conference, and his discussion for this year sounds equally engaging. Entitled "Endgame: How to Build High-End Gameplay for Your Most Devoted Players", it would seem to be tackling one of the issues that a lot of MMO players find very pressing. Make sure to check out the descriptions of the events, and if you're thinking of going make sure to register soon. Early registration is only open through the end of July. And, of course, you can look forward to extensive coverage from Massively.com; we'll be at the event in force!
Austin GDC: Live at the Minho Kim keynote
If you haven't heard of Minho Kim, I'll forgive you -- I hadn't heard of him either until the name showed up in the list of keynote presentations at the Austin Game Developers Conference. Kim is Nexon America's director of game operations, and while Nexon hasn't made a big impact in North American markets, their free-to-play, micro-transaction driven online games (the best known of which is probably MapleStory) are a hit in Asia and Europe. Kim's keynote launches the final day of the conference with a discussion of micro-transactions. Joystiq is on-site waiting for festivities to begin, so keep reading for a play-by-play.
Austin GDC: Live at the Hiromichi Tanaka keynote
Hiromichi Tanaka is the executive officer of Square Enix and the producer of company's entry into the MMO market, Final Fantasy XI. This morning at the Austin Game Developer's Conference he's going to be talking to us about the challenges of cross-platform design with a design post-mortum of Final Fantasy XI.11:06 AM CST: We were supposed to get started at 11AM CST, but the event seems to be running fashionably late.11:08 AM CST: Introducing Hiromichi Tanaka speaking on Launching Final Fantasy XI on Multiple Platforms.
Austin GDC: Live at the Sulka Haro keynote
Never heard of Sulka Haro? Then you must not have tried Sulake Corporation's casual online game, Habbo. Sulka Haro is Sulake's lead designer and he's going to be kicking off day two at the Austin Game Developer's Conference by talking to us about designing games to support open-ended play and end-user creativity.9:29 AM CST: The keynote is scheduled for 9:30, and people are slowly filtering into the conference room.9:34 AM CST: Introducing Haro to applause.
